The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposes to standardize commercial short messages and telephone calls: the draft has these highlights
"Buy a car? Do you have a loan? Do you buy insurance? Do you have a fitness card?" Spam text messages and harassing calls are very annoying. In response to this mess, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology plans to issue new regulations to manage it.
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly solicited opinions on the "Administrative Regulations on Communication Short Messages and Voice Call Services (Draft for Comment)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Draft for Comments"). Those who expressly refuse to send commercial short messages or make commercial calls are not allowed.
Regarding communication short message services, in 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Administrative Regulations on Communication Short Message Services". Regarding the management of harassing calls, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Call Center Business" in June this year, requiring call center business management to be strengthened Access management, code number management, access management, business behavior management, etc.
The current regulations have been implemented for a long time, why are spam text messages and harassing calls still banned repeatedly?
What are the highlights of this "Draft for Comments"?
Independent telecommunications analyst Fu Liang told The Paper that the profit chain of marketing SMS is actually very short, from beneficiary (advertiser) to implementer (third party sending information) to SMS recipient (harassed person), harassing the phone chain similar.
"Operators are also managing, such as providing number identification services, restricting the shutdown of numbers with many complaints, and blocking some overseas call-in numbers that do not meet the requirements, but as an enterprise, operators have no law enforcement power and can take the most stringent measures. It is the cancellation of the number. This method does not touch the real chain of interests. In addition, the implementer may be a "single soldier". Neither the current method nor the "Draft for Comment" is aimed at these people." Fu Liang said.
If the user does not explicitly agree, it is deemed to be rejected
It is understood that the "Draft for Solicitation of Comments" is based on the previous practical experience of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which revised the "Administrative Regulations on Communication Short Message Service" and added new regulations on voice call services.
The current "Administrative Regulations on Communication Short Message Services" stipulates that short message service providers and short message content providers shall not send commercial short messages to users without their consent or request.
After the user agrees and expressly refuses to receive commercial short messages, they shall stop sending them.
If the user does not reply, it shall be deemed not to agree to receive it.
If the user explicitly refuses or fails to reply, he shall not send him another short message with the same or similar content.
Communication industry expert Chen Zhigang introduced to The Paper: “Without the user’s consent or request, or the user’s explicit refusal, no commercial short messages shall be sent to them. This is the current industry’s basic principle of spam management and a requirement of the current measures. The "Draft for Comments" reiterated this principle."
The Paper News reporter noted that in the "Draft for Solicitation of Comments", the wording is more clear, and users who have not explicitly agreed to it will be regarded as rejection.
After the user agrees and clearly refuses to receive, it should stop.
With regard to ensuring that the relevant user has agreed to or requested to receive the consent certificate, the "Draft for Comments" also further requires that the user's consent certificate be retained for at least five months.
In Fu Liang's view, marketing needs do exist. Some merchants themselves or through third parties send commercial text messages or phone calls to obtain customers, but the percentage of users that can truly "clearly agree" is very low.
For example, if someone purchases a product on an e-commerce website, then the mobile phone number will continue to receive marketing information. In this case, the user has not "clearly expressed consent".
For some apps, checking in the user agreement means agreeing to the regulations for receiving SMS, phone calls, and emails. If the user does not check, the app cannot be registered.
How to prevent commercial short messages or commercial calls made without the user's consent or request?
The "Draft for Solicitation of Comments" proposes that basic telecommunications business operators should establish early warning and monitoring, big data research and judgment mechanisms, and take precautions through contractual agreements and technical measures.
Basic telecommunications business operators and mobile communication resale business operators discover that any organization or individual has violated these regulations to send short messages or make calls, they shall take necessary measures to stop their actions, and may restrict the provision of new communication resources or suspend them depending on the situation. Related Services.
Relevant records should be kept and channels for appeals should be provided.
"Phone calls and short messages are both peer-to-peer transmission modes. Early warning and big data are based on fuzzy rules. In the face of standardized scenarios, there will be a certain harassment filtering effect. This approach is usually used at the receiving end. But on the sending end Operators themselves have no power to enforce the law, and can only enforce the law based on "contractual agreements". There may be situations where they are neither capable nor motivated." Fu Liang pointed out that basic telecommunications business operators and mobile communication resale business operators can Depending on the situation, the measures to restrict the provision of new communication resources or suspend related services are also very minor, and are not in line with the benefits of the other party's violations. To curb marketing harassment calls still requires heavy penalties for violations.
If the circumstances are bad, the telecommunications business license shall be revoked
It is worth noting that the "Draft for Comment" further clarifies the legal responsibilities of short message service providers, voice call service providers, basic telecommunications business operators, and mobile communication resale business operators.
In the current "Administrative Regulations on Communication Short Message Services", if basic telecommunications business operators or short message service providers violate the provisions of Articles 18 to 21 of commercial short message management, the relevant departments shall follow the relevant state Penalties are imposed by laws and administrative regulations.
In the "Draft for Solicitation of Comments", if basic telecommunications business operators and short message service providers violate the relevant regulations on the management of commercial short messages and commercial telephone calls, the telecommunications management agency shall order corrections within a time limit according to its powers and give warnings, and may also Impose a fine of 10,000 yuan up to 30,000 yuan, and announce to the public; if the circumstances are bad, the telecommunications business license shall be revoked and the corresponding code number resources shall be recovered.
If basic telecommunications business operators or mobile communication resale business operators find that any organization or individual has violated these regulations to send short messages or make calls without stopping or continuing to provide communication resources, the telecommunications management agency shall order corrections within a time limit according to its powers and give a warning , May concurrently impose a fine of 10,000 yuan up to 30,000 yuan, and announce to the public.
Although the revocation of the telecommunications business license and the recovery of the corresponding code number resources are very strong, in the eyes of the industry, this regulation is likely to "protect gentlemen but not villains."
"Gentlemen will go to the basic operator to apply for permission, but the villain will not. They send messages and make harassing calls through ordinary phone numbers, and the operator is just a tool provider and has no right to view the content of the text messages or monitor the phone. Users. If you receive a harassing call, you may report it to the 12321 Acceptance Center of the Internet Society of China. After the 12321 Acceptance Center determines the harassment, it will feedback the information to the operator, and the operator will take further action. If the reporting rate is low at a certain stage, judge the harassment and Judging the degree of violation will increase." Fu Liang said.
In Fu Liang's view, some businesses and operators are like a cat and mouse game.
"Those who specialize in harassing business may have already figured out the rules of the operator. Assuming that the operator stipulates that the number of group postings cannot exceed 200, then the other party will set the number of group postings to 198. If the operator changes the rules, this group of people will do the same. Operators should also pay attention not to'manslaughter'. A real example is that users send New Year's greeting messages in groups during the New Year. Because the number of text messages is too large, their mobile phone numbers are blocked." Fu Liang said.
In Chen Zhigang's view, in recent years, with the gradual improvement of regulations, commercial text messages and voice calls have become more and more standardized, and the overall situation is improving.
"Especially in the fields of insurance, finance, and Internet services. Over the past decade or so, telecommunications regulatory authorities and operators have established relatively complete management systems, technical means, and customer complaint management and handling mechanisms. They have also cooperated with large Internet platforms and industries. Customers have established related linkage mechanisms and technical means." Chen Zhigang told The Paper.
According to a notice on the quality of telecommunications services issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on June 9th, in the first quarter of 2020, the 12321 Acceptance Center accepted 1,00028 user complaints about harassing calls, a decrease of 39.9% from the previous quarter; 58268 complaints from users about spam messages were accepted, a month-on-month comparison. A decrease of 43.4%.
In addition, the 12321 acceptance center received 8,732 fraud calls and SMS reports, a decrease of 56.3% from the previous month.
Will organize the establishment of a unified national "decline call" platform
The "Draft for Solicitation of Comments" proposes that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will organize the establishment of a unified national "decline call" platform to guide relevant organizations or individuals to respect the wishes of users and regulate commercial calls.
Basic telecommunications business operators should rely on the "Decline Call" platform to provide the "Decline Call" service, take a convenient and effective way to register users' willingness to receive commercial calls, and provide anti-intrusion services based on the user's wishes and mutual agreement.
In addition, mobile smart terminal manufacturers are encouraged to provide users with fast and convenient short message and voice call intrusion prevention services on mobile smart terminals.
Encourage users to independently choose appropriate mobile smart terminal security application software and other anti-intrusion service methods to improve self-protection capabilities.
In Fu Liang's view, the platform can restrain harassers who send text messages and make marketing calls, which is conducive to the discovery of harassment that violates the "decline call" and the relevant departments will impose severe penalties.
But whether it is "declining calls", mobile smart terminal manufacturers providing anti-intrusion services, or users independently choosing appropriate anti-intrusion service methods, it is all at the receiving end.
It is reported that the three major operators currently have corresponding anti-harassment reminder services, and Internet companies such as 360, Sogou, and Tencent have also launched corresponding products.
Regarding the control of harassing calls, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that since 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has jointly launched a comprehensive rectification of harassing calls with 12 departments including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and has achieved certain results.
However, during the period, the prominent problem of using the 95/96 number to dial harassing phone calls has a negative impact on governance.
Analysis of the reasons, part of which is due to the call center companies' weak awareness of law-abiding, focusing on interests and overseeing responsibilities, and inadequate management measures, providing convenience for commercial marketing companies to make harassing calls.
In June of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a special "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Call Center Business", requiring local communications administrations, operators, and call centers to strengthen management of harassing calls and protect the legitimate rights and interests of users.
In addition, call center business operators and basic telecommunications business operators are required to immediately carry out self-examination and self-correction, stop illegal outgoing calls and illegal access, improve management systems and technical means, and implement rectification before July 30, 2020.